STUDENT 101: GROCERY SHOPPING ON A BUDGET | Jazz Blackwell

January 14, 2019 Jazz Blackwell 0 Comments

In a post way back in the days of yore, I promised that there was a post to come about how to do your food shopping on a budget while you're a student. I never really got round to it - until now, that is.

For most, starting uni is the first time we'll be fully financially independent - and that includes being the first time you're fully responsible for your own groceries. In all likelihood, you're gonna be on something of a shoestring budget - there's a reason that the student stereotype is surviving solely on tins of beans and Pot Noodles. But that's not the way it needs to be - with a little planning, a general knowledge of the local area and a couple of useful tricks and apps, it's completely possible to eat pretty well on even a tight student budget.

TIP #1: FAMILIARISE YOURSELF WITH YOUR LOCAL SUPERMARKETS

This might seem glaringly obvious - perhaps to the point of being entirely annoying, but sometimes the obvious needs to be stated. The first thing you want to do when moving away to uni, whether you're going into halls or finding your own place, is to familiarise yourself with the supermarkets in the area. There are a couple of ways you can do this; the easiest is probably doing a quick google search of 'supermarkets near [your area]'. From there you can weigh up your options and make the most sensible decision for you - you're not likely to be able to afford Waitrose every week, even if it is your closest, and it might be worth making the extra five minute walk to Asda if that's your situation.

If you're going into halls, you'll probably find that your uni has assigned some older students to help with the move-in process. The majority of them will have lived in halls themselves, and they'll have at least a semi-decent knowledge of the area you're moving into. They're usually more than happy to answer any questions you have, so it may be worth asking which supermarkets you have in the area and exactly where they are in relation to the halls buildings.

Also remember that there's nothing wrong with budget supermarkets - Aldi and Lidl may be the butt of the joke in some circles, or the subject of a number of memes. But when you're a broke student, there's not really a lot of room for that kind of snobbery. Fact of the matter is that a lot of the products on offer at the cheaper supermarkets are every bit as good as their more expensive counterparts; you're usually just not paying for the name brand or fancier packaging. If you've got an Aldi or a Lidl available to you nearby, it's definitely worth picking those.


TIP #2: SUPERMARKET COMPARISON SITES
Now, maybe this is something most people already knew and I was just late to the party, but when I discovered supermarket comparison sites and apps at the beginning of second year, I was blown away by how handy it was. 

The one I specifically use is MySupermarket (not spons). It's pretty simple: you use the site to search for any items you need, and they compare the prices across fifteen different stores in the UK, including the leading supermarket chains. You can even compile an entire shopping list, and the site will tell you which supermarket is best to go to in order to spend the least. The site also allows you to see the best deals currently going on across all the stores they work with, and you can even use it to order a grocery shop online if that's what you prefer to do. My only criticism of it is that the mobile app isn't fantastic, and I much prefer working with the mobile site. 

TIP #3: LISTS AND BUDGETS
If you're looking to spend as little money as possible, I can't stress enough the importance of making a list before you hit the supermarket to get your grocery shopping. If you go in without one, even if you have an idea in your head about what you want, you're significantly more likely to go off-piste and spend money on additional things that you don't need. Make a physical copy of a list and take it and a pen with you to the shop so that you can check each item off as you get it. Remember here that there's nothing wrong with supermarket own-brand or value-brand products, and that frozen veg is no worse for you than fresh. 

It's also a good idea to set a budget before you go to the supermarket - perhaps even write it down on your list. If you go to the shop knowing that you want to spend no more than £20, for example, you're far less likely to overdo it. If you want to be even stricter with it, you can take only as much cash as you want to spend and leave your card behind at home; that way, you can't overspend even if you want to.

TIP #4: COUPONS, COUPONS, COUPONS 

This is another point that may seem redundant in its obviousness, but as with the first tip, it's obvious for a damn good reason. 

Coupons can be your absolute best friend when it comes to shopping as a student. Be they for cashback or for money off your entire purchase or singular products, anything that's going to help you save a wee bit of dough on your weekly shop is going to be handy for you. They can be a bit of a pain in the arse to find, but its worth putting the work in if you really need to scrimp and save. 

Your best shout for finding coupons these days is online; there's a whole page of them over on Money Saving Expert which gets updated regularly and is thoroughly checked to ensure all offers are fully valid and verified. There's also the offers page on P&G's Super Savvy Me website, where they regularly offer coupons on products from many of their daughter brands (note: P&G brands are all non-food brands, and these are mostly just useful for cleaning products and toiletries). You can also go the old fashioned route and check the newspapers for vouchers, but there's no guarantee here that you'll find any, and this does involve spending the money that the paper costs to get them. You can also check the App Store or Play Store to find coupon apps. 

TIP #5: SUPERMARKET LOYALTY PROGRAMS
Once you've familiarised yourself with the supermarkets in your area and decided which one is going to be best for you, think about looking into loyalty programs they might offer, as these can be a good way to save money or to be rewarded as a loyal/regular customer.

Personally, my closest supermarket is Morrisons, who offer the Morrisons More scheme which you can sign up to for free, with both a plastic card and an app that you can use. You get 5 points for every £1 you spend on groceries in-store or online, on fuel at Morrisons petrol stations or on food in Morrisons Cafés, or 25 points for every £1 you spend on gift cards in-store. When you reach 5,000 points, you receive a £5 off entire purchase voucher. They offer coupons through their More app, both for money off of various items and for extra points on certain purchases. They also have a 'More for Students' club that you can sign up to when you get a More account, through which you can get exclusive offers and discounts throughout the year. This is the only program I actually have any experience with, but you can find a really great comprehensive list  of the best ones over on Lovemoney. 

 So those are my tips on how best to go about grocery shopping on a shoestring budget as a student. Try them out and see if they help, and feel free to leave any more you might have down in the comments of this post. 

 Keep it weird,
Jazz xo

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NETFLIX REVIEW: BANDERSNATCH (2018) | Jazz Blackwell

January 07, 2019 Jazz Blackwell 0 Comments


It'll probably come as little surprise to any of you that I'm something of a Black Mirror superfan. As both something of a fairweather conspiracy theorist, as well as a great big horror nut, it honestly feels like the series was made for me. I was also super into choose-your-own adventure stories when I was a kid - so, naturally, when I heard about Bandersnatch, I was beyond excited.

The first thing I'll say is a criticism, not of the show, but of Netflix itself. I initially tried to play Bandersnatch on the desktop app - to be presented with the 'Sorry' montage informing me that I wouldn't be able to do so. That was a bit confusing for me; its the newest version of the app that I have, and my laptop is brand new (I got it for Christmas), so I'm a little bit confused as to why the episode wouldn't play. However, I did manage to get it going on the Netflix online player with no issue, so it wasn't too much of a problem - just a heads up that if you are struggling to play it on the desktop app for any reason, then the web player might be the way to go.

As for the show itself, I intentionally didn't read too much into the premise or anything beforehand because I really wanted to go into it and have a totally fresh experience - so I was very pleasantly surprised to see Dunkirk's Fionn Whitehead in the main role as game developer Stefan Butler and the wonderful Will Poulter as his hero Colin Ritman. It was also wonderful seeing People Just Do Nothing's Asim Chaudhry as company director Mohan Tucker. In short - the show was altogether very well cast, though I expected no less of Black Mirror.

The choose-your-own-adventure style of the program - its main selling point - more than met my expectations. When I initially spotted people on Twitter talking about how their were rather cosmetic choices they didn't expect to be asked to make, I worried that it might be too much - I thought, perhaps, the show would be over saturated with viewer choice and lack that anxious sense of tension and suspense that makes Black Mirror so great. Thankfully, however, they seem to have found the perfect balance. The choices do, indeed, start off rather superficial and cosmetic seeming - you decide what Stefan will eat for breakfast, or what music he will listen to on the bus - but as the program progresses, the choices become more and more sinister and difficult. In typical Black Mirror style, there is no ending that is really 'happy' or 'good' - just some which are less dark and grisly than the rest.

Overall, Bandersnatch has every aspect of Black Mirror which makes it so fantastic. My only criticism is the one fault I had with Netflix itself. It's difficult to issue any kind of disclaimers or trigger warnings for the show, given the near-infinite possibilities that depend on viewer choice, but I will say that if you're sensitive to blood, themes of mental illness, depictions of suicide and mentions of murder, approach this (and, honestly, any other Black Mirror) episode with caution.

My rating is 10/10. This is a definite must-watch. 

 Keep it weird,
Jazz xo

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NETFLIX REVIEW: A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENT SEASON 3 (2019) | Jazz Blackwell

January 04, 2019 Jazz Blackwell 0 Comments




It'll probably come as no surprise to most that I was something of a Lemony Snicket superfan in my youth (okay, I still am). The weird, gothy little child that I was became really rather obsessed with the weird, gothy tales of the Baudelaire children and their many misadventures. A hot take, but I was also a fan of the 2004 film - listen, I know it tanked at the box office and was pretty poorly reviewed, but show me anything with Jim Carey and I'm probably gonna love it.

I was pretty excited then when, two years ago, Netflix announced that they were making a TV series of the books. While I thoroughly enjoyed the film, I always did hate how much got left out. For those not in the know, the series consisted of 13 books, of which only the first three are covered in the film, with a very different ending to the one given in the books and a different sequence of events. A series had the potential to do what a film couldn't: all 13 books could have a reasonable amount of screen time, and we could get the ending that Mr Snicket (real name Daniel Handler) intended - and boy, did Netflix deliver!

As mentioned previously, I'm in love with Jim Carey, and so I worried about how well Neil Patrick Harris, wonderful though he is, would fill his shoes in the role of the treacherous villain and mediocre theatre actor Count Olaf. Any worries, however, were cast aside in the first episode of the first season: Harris is every bit as comical and sinister as Carey was, and he plays the (maybe not so) iconic role perfectly. Throughout the three seasons, he's only gone from strength to strength: he really brings Olaf to life as the character you love to hate. We don't do spoilers here, but in that scene in the final episode (if you know, you know), I was unexpectedly moved literally to tears; something I'm sure has everything to do with the performances of Harris and of the lovely Allison Williams as Kit Snicket. 

I also love Patrick Warburton - perhaps just as much as I do Jim Carey. Seeing him reprise his role as the series author/narrator Lemony Snicket was always going to be wonderful - but he, much like Harris, exceeded my expectations in this season; giving his most compelling and emotional performance in the series to date, he deserves every possible accolade available in my opinion. The same can be said for Malina Weissman and Louis Hynes in their roles as Violet and Klaus Baudelaire - each of them accurately and brilliantly portrays a child forced to grow up too quickly, in a way that really tugs the old heartstrings. Even Presley Smith - who is literally two years old - manages to give a punch right in the feels with her portrayal of Sunny, the youngest Baudelaire.

As expected, the sound, makeup and effects teams for the series have excelled themselves. I think I'll be able to watch all three seasons on a loop for years and still be amazed at how they managed to make Neil Patrick Harris' Olaf look near-identical to Jim Carey's.  The effects and backdrops are as astounding as ever, with the sole exception of the water in the final episode, though I have an inkling that this was done deliberately to reflect the fantastical and unreal nature of subsequent seasons (though that may just be the over-analytical English student in me). The soundtrack is catchy as ever, with the same eerie-yet-singable 'Look Away' theme tune as the previous two seasons. In terms of writing, the storyline is solid, as expected, with jokes, easter eggs and subtle references aplenty, with even a couple of very amusing fourth-wall-breaks. 

I really have only one criticism of the series and, honestly, it depends on how much of a purist you are. Again, I won't give you spoilers here, but I will issue something of a warning: if you're expecting the same open ending as the books, you may be disappointed. 

Overall, I'd rate this season a 9/10

Keep it weird, 
Jazz xo

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